Raybon Kan on his tweet
September 20th, 2011 at 3:00 pm by David FarrarAn excellent blog post by Raybon Kan about the media generated nonsense regarding his tweet:
Three days later, the Herald on Sunday rang, shrill with anger. I asked her to email me questions, but she refused: “I’ve got you on the phone!” She’d located people who’d been offended. What did I have to say? Didn’t I have a responsibility? I asked the reporter to get these complainants to contact me, so I could respond. (Twitter is an open forum of back and forth, but when offended parties don’t use Twitter — for example, when a reporter uses GPS, CSI and DNA to geo-locate the most offendable people on any given topic, to tell them of a tweet that plainly wasn’t meant for them; and then with emotional, loaded questions, demands a response on the spot — well, for that, try Facebook, or this site.)
I wonder how many phone calls it took for the HoS to find someone who said they were offended? One of those quoted even said later on Twitter that while he thought the tweet was a bit offensive, he was not calling for it to be deleted.
Since the article, however, I’ve attracted much, much stronger criticism. This is what I want to address here. I’ve been accused of anti-Semitism. In fact, if you read the article at the Herald online, a picture of evil fashion designer John Galliano appears adjacent, from an article months before. Visually, the effect is ‘Holocaust joke’, and next-door, John Galliano, and in the middle, me. I wind up being painted anti-Semitic by association, innuendo, or worse, by defamatory web layout.
My tweet was anti-Adidas, anti-Nazi, and obviously, anti-bad trains. It was also really rude to Germans. But it was not anti-Semitic. If anything, it was anti-anti-Semitic. Referring to something isn’t always a recommendation. An allusion doesn’t have to be an alleluia.
Anyone who calls my tweet anti-Semitic is doing real, foaming anti-Semites a disservice. Crazy Mel Gibson is anti-Semitic. The barking mad leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (who pledges to wipe Israel off the map) is anti-Semitic. Neo-Nazis are anti-Semitic.
It’s not like I released an album with the Hamas Symphony Orchestra.
It’s not like I designed a new Spring Collection with John Galliano.
It’s not like I sent al-Qaeda flowers of condolence to mark the tragic loss of Osama bin Laden.
It’s not like I went into Anne Frank’s house with members of the SS and shouted in my best German: she’s in the bookcase!My tweet wasn’t anti-Semitic. It was insensitive (in other words, I brought up, obliquely, the subject of a tragedy, but without wearing black, playing an anthem, or making a two-part documentary.) But as Steve Martin said, comedy ain’t pretty.
Somewhere in the world, right now, there’s a disaster, a genocide, a tragedy. And quite soon, somebody will make a joke about it. But it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re cheerleading for it. A mention isn’t a manifesto.
Exactly. And if you’re offended by someone’s tweet, well how about you just quietly stop following them.
Just for balance though. I include this You Tube video done by a reader, showing Hitler’s reaction to Raybons tweet.
Tags: Humour, Raybon Kan
September 20th, 2011 at 3:21 pm
Someone, somewhere is, at any given point in time, offended by just about anything these days. It appears that it is the MSM’s job to find that person, and to fluff them (fluffer reference is intentional) into a frothy rage. Since when is this reporting? Since when does a truly tiny minorities outrage (or mild rage) rate as newsworthy?
Hence why I dont bother believing what I read these days. I stick with the BBC online news and a few others to stay informed, and everything else for ‘dump read’. You figure it out
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 3:32 pm
The taking of offence is a personal choice. Like all choices, we do not have to choose it.
I did not like Kan’s silly little joke very much. However I really like his response to those who chose to be offended/outraged. Hilarious.
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Someone, somewhere is, at any given point in time, offended by just about anything these days.
That probably hasn’t changed, what has changed is the ease with which media can find and display someone who is offended. The more offended one acts the more chance of being chosen for 5 seconds on the telly, or getting a mentioned online.
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
***Someone, somewhere is, at any given point in time, offended by just about anything these days.***
Being offended is #101 on the list of Stuff White People Like.
“Naturally, white people do not get offended by statements directed at white people. In fact, they don’t even have a problem making offensive statements about other white people (ask a white person about “flyover states”). As a rule, white people strongly prefer to get offended on behalf of other people.
It is also valuable to know that white people spend a significant portion of their time preparing for the moment when they will be offended. They read magazines, books, and watch documentaries all in hopes that one day they will encounter a person who will say something offensive. When this happens, they can leap into action with quotes, statistics, and historical examples. Once they have finished lecturing another white person about how it’s wrong to use the term “black” instead of “African-American,” they can sit back and relax in the knowledge that they have made a difference.
White people also get excited at the opportunity to be offended at things that are sexist and/or homophobic. Both cases offering ample opportunities for lectures, complaints, graduate classes, lengthy discussions and workshops. All of which do an excellent job of raising awareness among white people who hope to change their status from “not racist” to “super not racist.”
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05/28/101-being-offended/
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Bob r Yes you are soooooooo right. And thats why o enjopy offending white people. Its just sooooo easy. they rise to trhe bait like a trout to the fly.
They get their tits in a tangle and their bowels twisted at anything and everything.
Long may it continue. It adds spice to life
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
Raybon is probably a broad-minded guy. He could just as easily have said that “they should have had the Chinese sort out the debacle down at the Auckland waterfront – afterall they made a great job of sorting out the crowd at Tiananmen Square”.
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
As a strong critic of Raybon, I’m glad he has said it was insensitive. I like Raybon, he’s hilarious, and I’ve followed him since Evening Post days. I’ve been hammered on the front page of a Welly paper myself for humour about Indian women. But his apology is a bit like a Helen Clark one…”I’m sorry you were offended.”
The joke was offensive because he was dismissive of Jewish genocide and treated it flippantly. The association with the Jewish trains made it anti-semitic and all the side-stepping about Adidas or being anti-Nazi (which I don’t buy) doesn’t change that. Let’s be clear: the joke commended Germans (not Nazis) for efficency at running trains, because of what they achieved packing millions of doomed Jewish men , women and children into cattle trucks for extermination. LOL.
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 4:09 pm
I’m guessing free speech should only apply where I agree with the speaker?
On top of the faux outrage stories, I am also totally over vox pop masquerading as news.
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 4:11 pm
Go Raybon – that’s the best retort to the tiresome Sunday paper bullshit I’ve ever read. And he’s from Masterton, just like me!
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
@ iMP,
The association with the trains did not make it anti-semitic, if anyone should be offended it is Germans and Adidas. It was clearly a dig at them.
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
@iMP 04 04, they were certainly German Trains any chance of Jews owning trains evapourated following Kristall nacht in 1938
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
“….offensive because he was dismissive of Jewish genocide and treated it flippantly.”
Oh, bollocks. If you really think Kan’s jokes were dismissive of genocide (and not an attempt on your part to express your faux outrage over nothing), then you probably didn’t like many of his follow up comments either – including this piece of gold:
“It’s not like I went into Anne Frank’s house with members of the SS and shouted in my best German: she’s in the bookcase!”
Ha ha – keep it up Raybon. Some of us have a sense of humour.
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
They were Jewish trains not because they owned them (probably stolen off the Poles and French) but because millions of Jews were IN them, thus ‘Jewish trains.’ Bit like calling a fruit “Kiwifruit” when its really a Chinese gooseberry.
Elaycee, how does taking offense at a stupid joke equate to not having a sense of humour?
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 5:27 pm
Maybe Steve Gurney should run the Auckland trains. Mind you, he might miss his ride. Hilarious.
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 5:30 pm
Fly TV3, they’ll pilot your airwaves.
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 7:11 pm
I wish Hitler had killed targeted the politically correct instead.
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 7:15 pm
ps go Raybon! I have 100% sympathy with victims of the Holocaust (how could anyone not?) but as you say your joke wasn’t aimed at them. The end.
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 7:22 pm
……..targeted the politically correct instead.
Made to sew a bleeding heart to their jackets..
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 8:19 pm
The original joke and followup post were brilliantly funny. crass, un pc and very funny, they way the best comedy is.
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 8:49 pm
Raybon’s comment wasn’t offensive. Except to the lefties. There are certain people who have chosen to be offended by anything & everything no matter what.
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
I’m an righty-voting supporter of individual liberty and personal responsibility, and long-time hater of compulsory student unionism.
Vote:I support Raybon’s right to say what he said. I support peoples right to be offended, and, with a self-important huff, turn off the TV or radio etc.
But actually I am a bit offended by the subject matter. The more you know about the holocaust, the less you feel like joking about anything remotely connected to it.
I still love Raybon’s style, he will push the limits of taste, and at times overstep mine. But I support him doing so – hell, that’s what we (my grandfather’s generation, that is) were fighting for all the time, weren’t we?
September 20th, 2011 at 10:17 pm
I Like Raymond. His twice weekly collumns in the Dominion years ago were a highlight for me. Personally I thought the reported fuss over the tweet was all twoddle.
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 11:27 pm
Is there really nothing more interesting going on than this? Fuck’s sake. The newspapers should consider it an option to say “sorry, nothing happened today, we’ll cancel todays edition and hope for better luck tommorow”, rather than get this pathetic.
Vote:September 20th, 2011 at 11:54 pm
Raybon Kan is a desperately unfunny ‘comedian’. That’s my view. Not everyone agrees with me, and that’s OK.
However, he was media-mugged on this one.
More innovative, cutting-edge, compelling journalism…
Vote:September 21st, 2011 at 7:06 am
“Desperately unfunny”? Yeah that is absolute tripe; Raybon Kan is a national treasure.
We need more people who are willing to poke fun at the stifling grey sameness of New Zealand’s approved-opinion-only socialism.
There have been too many positions created over the past decade for people who are incapable of orginal thought, but talented at spotting opportunities to build shrill straw man arguments, a la “He said that, which means he’s this, and that’s baaaaaad!”
I’m no fan of fundamentalist theocracies, but would point out that Raybon fell into the approved misquote of Ahmadinejad’s UN speech.
He did not say Israel should be wiped off the map, but that Zionism should disappear from the pages of time. If AIPAC were paying US politicians to look favourably on the idea of destroying my country, in concert with neocons at the helm with dual American-Israeli nationalities, I might share his sentiments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_Israel
Vote:September 21st, 2011 at 1:23 pm
Martin Gibson: we will just have to disagree about Kan and whether he is funny. I’ve never found him funny, and not particularly original in his material. But that’s me.
I do agree with you over Ahmedinejad and his ‘approved misquote’. Good expression there.
There are also ‘approved’ villains (such as Herr Hitler), and by that I mean badduns who it’s all right to denounce and declaim against. There are other villains, such as Gospodin Stalin, who, it seems to me, it’s all right to make excuses for.
National Socialism (Naziism) was and is deemed to be ‘evil’ because it was fascist (‘evil’), and mixed up in all of this was a genocidal hatred of the Jews (undoubtedly evil).
Communism had and still has its friends. Because it apparently promised the riches of the earth to all people whatever their colour, nationality, occupation (or lack of), and station in life, and equally, and the universal brotherhood of man (and woman), people make excuses for it.
The so-called Russian Revolution is portrayed in history as a rising up of the people against the established, imperial order. It wasn’t. Marxism is excused in a whole lot of other places (such as China) because the people apprarently rose up against the rich and powerful and took what was theirs.
Yet in every communist regime people were killed. Most of them innocent people. Gospodin Stalin organised the mass starvation of Ukrainian farmers. He ordered – and in the middle of a war for his country’s very life – the deportation of millions of Tartars from their southern homelands to Siberia.
Hitler, if he had survived the end in 1945, would undoubtedly have been in the dock for war crimes. Stalin wasn’t because he was one of the victors.
In China the figure often quoted for Mao Tse-tung’s Great Leap Forward is 40 million deaths.
Raybon Kan made a not very funny reference to adidas and Germany and trains, alluding to concentration camps. The Herald on Sunday mugged him by lining up people ready to be offended and quoted. The lesson being, that when it comes to the subject, you have to be careful what you say.
If Kan had made similar remarks about the mass killers Stalin and Mao, deportations in cattle trucks to isolated reaches of Russia, there would not have been a story. Because there are people who approved of that.
I know Poles, and their number is diminishing now, who can tell you all about being packed into cattle-trucks and being railed off to concentration camps in the Arctic Circle of the old Soviet Union. Of having to stand, on the two-week journey, next to a standing corpse and being unable to get away from the decomposition and the stench. Worse there is the smell of body odours of dozens of people packed into a poorly ventilated container on wheels, and the added smell and sight of urine, faeces, menstruation. Beyond imagining, eh. But there are people in this country who went through that.
Vote:September 21st, 2011 at 1:35 pm
I wish Hitler had killed targeted the politically correct instead.
Er, he did. He was quite possibly the most proficient killer of socialists and communists in history. They got the last laugh, though.
Vote:September 21st, 2011 at 7:05 pm
Yea, I guess. But you know what I mean: life would be better without the thought police to tell you you’re wrong or to sack you for the crime of disagreeing with them.
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